Dog shearing?

I said I was against it, but we did it anyway. Our house dog, Quinn, is a pure bred Miniature American Eskimo. His breed is supposed to be brushed everyday, not shaved down. When we picked him out, back when he was a puppy, he was so cute, I was just sure I could brush him regularly. Well, that didn't last long. Here he is, just over 2 years old, and leaving massive amounts of long white hair all over our house. He has the most wonderful personality, but the hair, I was vacuuming the house three times a week and still not keeping on top of it. The thought of him living another 12+ years and dealing with his hair all this time was too much. We came to a cross roads, something had to be done. Even though you aren't supposed to, we decided to shave him down. I've read that because his breed has two layers of fur growing in, shaving it down can mess up those layers so it never looks good again. Well, we can just keep him shaved down so we won't have to worry about how it grows back.

J ordered a dog grooming kit, and this weekend we sat down to shave Quinn. I held Quinn, J used the shaver. I have to say, Quinn behaved better than I thought he would. The shaver on the other hand, did not work as well as we thought. It may be because Quinn's fur was so long, it's so fine, and it wouldn't stay in the guard to be cut.

Here is Quinn before:



Quinn with Shadow before (just like black alpacas, black dogs are very hard to photograph), our two house dogs:



Here is Quinn after:



We have no plans to open up a dog grooming salon. But I am excited to think about less dog hair floating around my house.

Memorial

J ordered a grave marker for Dottie's grave:



We buried her in the front of our house, our driveway loops around creating a turn around area. In that area we have bird feeders and a bird bath. Back in Dottie's youth, she used to lay there in wait of attacking a bird or squirrel. Even when she was inside the house, she'd get up on the couch so she could look out at this area. It's right outside our front window, where we can see easily.

Projects

I haven't been as busy with fiber as I would like. I've even slacked off of my 1 skein a week goal. I need to get back to that. But we have been doing some things.

I have some of Rosco's fiber started into yarn:



This is an ear flap hat that I am almost done knitting, out of Cafe's fiber:



And J has been busy knitting, here is a hat he finished, out of Lightning's fiber:

CVI

Before each alpaca show, it is necessary to get a CVI (Certified Vet Inspection). On Friday, we took Cavalier, Pocahontas and Rose to get their CVI for Alpacafest, in Ohio. All passed with no issues.

We are starting to get excited about this impending show. We haven't gone to any falls shows, and have missed having the opportunity to show off our prized alpacas.

I'm sure I'll post updates throughout the show. It is the first weekend in November.

Farm girls

This past weekend we needed hay. Being alpaca farmers, getting hay is a regular farm chore. Typically J takes care of getting hay. I've often said that I take care of scooping poop, and he gets hay. I have a hard time lugging hay bales, they are heavy for me. But, with J still recovering from surgery, there was no choice, I had to help with hay. He drove the truck and trailer, and while he helped stack it, Emma and I lugged the bales to the trailer. Back at home, J was too sore to do anymore, so Emma and I stacked all 30 bales. I have to say farm girls are a different breed. Emma, at only 11 years old, was able to pick up and stack bales of hay! She could carry as much as I could. She was so proud of her strength. I know at 11 I would not have been able to do that.

Emma also takes care of feeding the male alpacas. That's her daily chore. She does a great job making sure they have hay and water.

Growing up on a farm teaches you things you wouldn't know otherwise. Emma has gained strength, responsibility and a lot of knowledge about alpacas.

Shadow

Our family is a dog family. J has always loved dogs and actually he'd take home 20 dogs if I'd let him. I had to limit him to only 2 house dogs and 1 farm dog (Spot is a farm dog only, he has never been in the house). Our kids have grown up with dogs, so that is what they are used to. Both Emma and Zack really like dogs. I grew up not really liking dogs. It wasn't until I graduated from college and was faced with living on my own, that I wanted a dog. I did not want to be completely alone. A dog is a companion, a protector. With J working 3rd shift, there have been many times over the years that I'm grateful to have our dogs.

On Monday J picked up our newest family dog, Shadow.

Zack and Shadow:



Emma and Shadow:



He is a two year old Miniature Schnauzer. J has wanted a miniature schnauzer since I can remember. When we got Quinn, that's really what J wanted, but I vetoed it. Every schnauzer I had met seemed snippy. I've since learned that while they are protective of their family and can be stand-offish of others, they are very loyal to their family. I also decided that a low shedding dog was the main priority. After having 2 long haired white dogs, something had to change.

We heard that this dog was available and decided that while it was quite soon after losing Dottie, we were ready. Shadow happened to need a home, and when we went to meet him, he was so sweet I knew he was coming to our house. He's very friendly, and not at all snippy.

His official registered name is Zippy Von Zorro. He was called Zippy by his previous owners, but we decided to nick name him Shadow. The kids and I tested him and he didn't respond to either name, so changing it doesn't seem to phase him. Now to work on getting him to recognize "Shadow".

Quinn has had some adjusting to do. But he loves that Shadow will play with him. They played a lot of chase today:



The alpacas were keeping a close watch on the situation. When we took Shadow for a walk past the boy's pasture, they gave him the glare:



Believe it or not, but I made it into one of the blog pictures today, that never happens. Though it seems Shadow was favoring Emma over me:



Shadow is having some adjusting to do. He was living in a kennel in someone's yard. He's not used to being in the house, not used to having a family. He didn't seem to know what to do in the house, he'd lay on the rug right in front of the door. We did get him a double crate so he can Quinn can be companions:



The crate is only for overnight and when we are not home. Quinn tends to get anxious during those times and would mess with things. The crate keeps him safe and secure. Shadow used to live in a kennel, being in the crate only a short part of the time is a relief to him.

Memories

Dottie has been J's dog since she was only a few weeks old. By the time I met J and shortly thereafter, Dottie, she was just over a year old. She was still a spunky young girl, and actually acted like a puppy until she was at least 8 years old. Dottie was a high energy dog, who loved to run and jump. She would run so hard her ears would flap in the wind. Her hair was often wild, she was never the fancy pretty girl type, always a tough tomboy. Even in her old age, she still had her wild hair:



She used to run loose all over our land. I would be taking a walk in the woods and suddenly Dottie would run up behind me. She was always nearby, though we didn't always see her. Dottie loved the snow. Her favorite thing on a winter day was to lay by the fireplace, then run outside and roll in the snow. She would dive down in the snow, getting her ears deep into a snow drift.



Dottie has been a part of our family since before Emma was born. She had been good with kids, and took to Emma immediately. Emma was only 6 months old when Dottie was hit by a car. The injuries were significant and we were told at that time that these injuries would become a problem as she aged. In the mean time, we had ten wonderfully healthy years in there. One of Dottie's injuries was a shattered leg. To fix it, she had a steal rod pinned on the outside of her leg. It was quite gruesome. One day without thinking too much of it, I put Emma on the floor to play, while I went to wash some dishes. Later I looked back at her to find that Emma had scooted over to Dottie and was holding the steal rod in her hand! Dottie never growled, never cried, never made any noise, but the look on her face with her eyes bugging out was clear that she wanted me to remove this child from her grasp immediately. I have to say, if I had been in Dottie's position, I might have growled. Dottie had more patience and kindness than that. She knew Emma was just a baby and didn't mean any harm.

We were worried after her accident if she would be able to jump in the air and twirl around like she always had. It was amazing that with one leg having been shattered and the other hip out of socket (they never were able to get it back in correctly), Dottie managed to regain her jump twist maneuver. She also was able to run in the woods again, bouncing over logs and other obstacles, reminding me of Tigger. All you could see was a white fleck bouncing through the woods.

In the early years of our marriage, I used to tease J that I married him for Dottie. They say people marry for all sorts of reasons, and that seemed as good a reason as any. In fact, a good dog is better than many other reasons I've heard of. Though now, after 12 years together, he doesn't need to worry that without Dottie we'll fall apart.

Dottie has always been there for me. J has worked the night shift since 2003, and there have been several instances when there was a bump in the night that I, as the only parent home, had to go investigate. Dottie would always go with me, no matter what time, no matter where we had to go. She'd jump up and walk with me, going into the darkness ready to protect me. When I starting running several years ago, Dottie was the only dog who could last an entire run with me. All of our other dogs will run great the first few laps, but will tucker out too soon. Dottie's walk pace was my run pace, so she would set the pace for me. Whenever I was sad, even before I realized it myself, I would notice Dottie would follow me all over, never leaving my side. She was a loyal faithful dog.

Here is Dottie, in her old age, sitting in her favorite spot by the front window, with the kids:



I've often said that Dottie is the best dog ever. I know we've had other good dogs (and will again in the future), but I've said all along that no dog will be as good as Dottie. You can't beat her. No matter how much we like a dog, no matter how great we think he/she is, they are still no Dottie.

Dottie will forever be in our hearts, we will never forget her.

~ Dottie ~

Rest in peace sweet Dottie.
You have been the best dog ever.
You walked with me when I was too scared to go on my own.
You ran with me when I needed a running partner.
You comforted me when I was sad.
You dance when I had exciting news to share.
You protected and loved my babies as if they were your own.
You are the best dog ever.
Rest in peace.

Bad hair day

Just when I thought I was having a bad hair day, I arrive at the boy's barn to see their top knots. We need to do some top knot trimming, they are getting a bit wild.

Here is Greyt:



Tucker's droopy top knot:



And my favorite, Snowstorm:

He's really here

Last week I was very excited that Tucker finally came home. But I kept forgetting to take my camera down to the boy's barn (the boys are housed just down the road from us). I'd go down there to feed them, only to realize I forgot my camera.

This past weekend I got these pictures of him:






He looks pretty much how I remember him. If anything, his gray color looks lighter to me, but otherwise, he looks much the same. He greets me by the gate each time I come down there, just like he used to. We are so glad to have him back home!

While I was there, I took a quick snap shot of Fluffy, our barn cat. Fluffy came to our farm over 3 years ago, before the alpacas made their way here. She has been our constant companion. Unfortunately, every cat friend we've gotten for Fluffy has not lived very long. The truth is that the life span of a barn cat is not long. Fluffy, for some reason, always beats the odds. I don't know if she's a fighter or has super powers or what. We've joked that it might be that Fluffy wants to be the only cat and has lead the other cats to their demise. Or that Fluffy is like a cockroach and nothing will kill her. At the end of the world there will be cockroaches and Fluffy. Whatever it is that keeps her with us, we are thankful for. She's a great barn cat, killing all small rodents. She loves to be petted, but doesn't care much for her pictures to be taken. Here's the only snap shot I could get of her:

This is MY herd

Lucy has been at our farm just over a week. We are still getting used to each other. Since she came, I've had a hard time deciding if she is really friendly, really protective, or just curious. She will always greet me when I go out there, she'll walk up to me and get close. I love her big eyes:



Most of the time she just comes up to me as if to say "hi". But sometimes she runs over to me making a clucking sound. My niece described it so well, when she does this we don't know if she's preparing to spit on us, or is just greeting us. My niece said "that's when I run away." I haven't run away, and she has never spit on me. So I don't think it's a spitting issue. But I do think she feels protective of Latte's cria, Ginger. They both came to our farm last week, from the same farm, the same herd. Lucy seems more protective of the cria than Latte. And, somehow Lucy knows when I come out there to do something with Ginger, that's when Lucy will cluck and block me.

To block, she stands sideways right in front of me. As I walk I literally have to push her out of my way. All the time she's making a clucking sound, that makes me wonder if she might spit at me. It's as if she knows Ginger came from her former herd and it is her duty to protect her. Lucy will move from her block only to zig zag and block me again. The block amounts to this:



I can only take a few steps before I have to push her. Then she will zig zag around to this:



While I have a couple inches on Lucy, Lucy has mass on her side. She's a good size alpaca. I don't know exactly how much she weighs, but she's heavier than me. If she wanted to spit and kick and push me, she could make my life pretty miserable. I often classify alpacas in those with less mass than me, and those with more. The ones with less mass I always think I could take them on. But the truth is that I've had little young one wrestle me to the ground and give me bruises that lasted for weeks (of note, alpacas are not aggressive animals, these wrestling matches only take place when I am doing something to them that they do not like, such as shots and trimming nails. The alpaca goes into fight or flight mode and really do think I am dangerous. I have never been attacked, and any spit or bruises have been the result of my grabbing them). I've never had a big alpaca like Lucy do more than spit on me. And in her case, she hasn't even done that. The most she does, is stand in my way and cluck as if to say "leave that baby alone." I don't think she's trying to be mean to me. She's not aggressive at all. I think she's just protecting her herd and still isn't sure she can trust me. In time, we will come to know each other better.

I do love that she is friendly and greets me. We have several friendly ones on our farm, and they quickly become our favorites.

Weaning

We tried weaning Rose a few weeks back, but she was getting so upset that we gave in and let her back with her mom. We theorized that her mom was out of milk by then anyway. Then this week we caught her nursing again. So we decided to move her into the maiden girls area. She is not happy about this at all. We also put a cover on her. The last few batches of hay that we've gotten have had a lot of burrs in it. Rose was getting burrs in her blanket fiber. With an alpaca show right around the corner, that is the last thing we wanted! Thankfully we had these covers that South Haven Alpacas gave us. They are perfect to keep the burrs off her.

Rose is right by the fence, trying to get by her friends in the other pen:



Rose's sad face:

Dams and cria, moms and babies

I struggle sometimes when writing my blog to know if I should use the farm term for things, or the layman's terms. Such as dam for mom, and cria for baby. I know to alpaca farmers, these are common terms. And, to many who grew up in farming communities or even on a farm, they grew up with these terms (maybe not cria, as alpaca farms were not around when I was a kid, but most of the other terms would be familiar). But, as someone who grew up in suburbia, these aren't such common terms. If four years ago I read a blog about dams and cria I would have had to figure out what they meant through the context of the post. So, I often use these terms interchangeably, or put one in parentheses. I know some of my readers are farmers, some fellow alpaca farmers, but others are city folk, or someone just googling a topic and came across my blog. I try to make sure anyone reading can understand what I am talking about.

The funniest example of why I often use various terms happened with the word fiber. To an alpaca farmer, an avid spinner and knitters, we know what fiber is, that wonderful product that alpacas grow on them that we can make into luxurious yarn. One often refers to themselves as a fiber-aholic. But, to a former city folk person (I mean me here) it's taken some adjustment to think of it as fiber. And I can tell when I talk to some people that "fiber" does not make them think of yarn at all. I often will use the words "like wool" or "fur". I know that may make some alpaca farmers cringe, but the truth is that when I was a city person, "fur" or "wool" would have made a lot more sense to me. To me it's more important that people understand what I'm talking about, than that I use the exact appropriate term. When I talk to people in person, I can tailor the words to what makes sense to them. Even if I use the words "like wool" or "fur" I will add in fiber so that they know in the alpaca world it is called fiber. As people learn more about alpacas, I slip into using more of the correct terms and drop the layman's terms. But, I talk to more people outside of the alpaca community, so sometimes I slip and use laymen terms when in a crowd of alpaca owners. Oh the gasps one can hear. The funny story happened to J. A person at work asked him what he does with his alpacas. He stated that he has them "for their fiber." Her reply "you mean you eat them?" Yeah, wool or fur would have made a lot more sense to her.

Back to my topic of dams (moms) and cria (babies). I always find it neat to see how the dams and cria will lay near each other. I took these pictures this past weekend, on a day I fed them later than usual. They know when it's meal time, and if I'm late to get out there, they will lay by the gate in wait of their food. On this morning, I found them laying there in sets, dam and cria together. Note Maddie, the black and white mom, with Twilight, her black and white cria right next to her, and Victoria with Challenger next to her (both are reddish brown in color), then Sancha (white) with Copper (brown) nearby:



Kateri and her cria, Chaska, were off by themselves:



When I went out there to get some better pictures, that's when they all started to get up. They know if I'm there, that means grain time:

Fall Colors

We live in an oak forest, which means we don't get vivid fall colors. Oak trees are notorious for turning brown, and then taking forever for the leaves to fall off the trees. I heard a joke recently: "how do you know spring is coming? The oak leaves finally fall off." It does feel brown and blah most of the fall and winter in our forest (until the white snow falls).

But this weekend, with the warm sunny weather, I saw the most color I've ever seen here:

Fall Chores

One of our biggest fall chores is chopping, splitting, and stacking wood. We primarily heat our home with a propane fueled furnace, but to save in propane costs, when we are home all day, we instead heat with our wood burning fireplace. It gives us a toasty warm house on those cold winter days. But getting the wood ready for the winter is not a fun chore.

J had already cut down several trees when creating a new pasture last spring. This past week he finished cutting up those trees into small logs. Then he split the wood. J's work schedule has him working every other weekend, so when he had time this week to do those things, we were all busy. Today, when J was sleeping after working all night, the kids and I stacked the wood:



Last year I stacked the wood on my own. Just as I was almost finished, the entire pile fell over on my car! It was terrible. I was lucky that it didn't break any windows, and that it was my old car. Today I knew to move my car out of the garage, just in case. As it turns out, my kids are great wood stackers and we had no issues with that at all. In fact, Emma put me to shame, she was lugging so much wood in each trip. Zack was the one who came up with the great idea to use the wagon to speed up the process.

We'll need more wood in order to make it through the entire winter. But this is a great start. Our biggest concern was that J is having surgery next week, and we wanted to make sure I have enough wood to keep the house toasty warm for him while he recovers. We have plenty for that, and more than half of what we'll need for the entire winter. I'm glad to have this chore mostly completed.

Yarn

I've been doing pretty good with spinning up a skein of yarn each weekend (a goal I started in September). Sometimes I'm working into the week to complete it, but I'm doing it. I started a log where I write in when a skein is completed. I don't know why I didn't think to do this before. It's neat to see what I've made. The log notes the date the skein was completed, who the fiber came from, how many ounces it is and how many yards long. I wish I had documentation for previous skeins. But at least I am starting it now.

On my swift, I put slash marks to show the size for 1 yard skeins, 1.5 yard skeins (what I usually do) and 2 yard skeins. It's hard to see the marker on this picture, in real life it's easier to see. The slash shows where I need to put the lever to create a specific size skein. This way I don't have to measure it out every time I make a skein.



Last week I completed this skein:




We continue to brainstorm ideas on how to increase yarn production. While I have increased our production rate significantly by making a skein a week, that still only gives us 50 skeins for a year (realizing some weekends I just won't make the goal). We have more fiber than that (which will just compound every year). We are looking at having yarn made at a mill, and/or having rovings made. While I hate to spend money on having rovings made when I can do it myself, it sure does slow down our production rate. A bit of money into it could create a bigger outcome. Having yarn for sale would so be nice! At our current rate, we use the yarn faster than I can create it, so we never have any for sale. Sales of yarn would not only help our bottom line, but would make available this wonderful yarn for others to enjoy also.

Halter Training

I usually wait until spring to start halter training our cria. Most often I just don't get around to it in the fall, and then winter hits and it doesn't sound like a fun thing to do in the winter, so I wait. Then when spring shows come around, I'm scrambling to get them trained in time. This year I really am starting in the fall. For most of them, this just gets me ahead for the spring. But for Rose, her first show will be in a few weeks at Alpacafest in Ohio. We don't usually have a juvenile who is old enough to attend a fall show (we bred for May births at the earliest, which means they can't show until December). Rose came to us, and had already been born in April, so she's ready to show by November (they have to be six months old).

I had Emma (in her old barn clothing) and her cousin help me with haltering. Our goal for this first session was to get the halter on them, so they get used to the feel of it. And, get them to take a couple steps.

Rose is always happy to greet us:




Here the others are wondering what we are going to do to them:




Twilight didn't want to walk with the halter, but did take a few steps in a circle. In the beginning, you can't expect them to walk in a nice straight line. The goal is to get them to take some steps, so we pull them off balance in a circle to get them to take some steps. Twilight was willing to follow our lead on this.






Chaska was not willing to go with our direction and decided to pull and be stubborn:



We've dealt with many like this. In time, he'll get it.

Ginger

As usual, when there is a new cria on our farm, we have our cria naming discussion. As a family we decide on the name. The dam (mother) is new to our farm, so this is a brand new family tree for us. We like to use a theme for the names in each family tree. But, since her dam's name is Straightfork Vanilla Latte, it was easy to pick "drink names" as her theme.

After much discussion, we came up with: Eclipse' Ginger Ale

Eclipse is the name of her sire, so to honor him and the farm they came from we decided to start with that. Then the drink name. Her farm nick name will be "Ginger".

Today was a beautiful warm and sunny day, so we took the cria coats off Ginger. She was able to run and play and soak up the sun. I got a few pictures of her with her dam (mom) and of course Rose had to get in on a picture too.

Dog on the Loose

Insurance companies are quick to note that the biggest threat to alpacas is other loose dogs, such as the neighbor's dog that got loose and gets into your alpaca's pasture. We have a guardian dog, Spot, who watches out for these type of dogs. What Spot doesn't guard for is our own house dogs. We have two house dogs, and we specifically set up our backyard to keep them separate from the alpacas. However, once in awhile Quinn gets loose. While I know he won't hurt our alpacas, I'm not so sure the alpacas won't hurt him. Those moms can be very protective.

These pictures aren't the best because they are taken at some distance with a lot of cropping, but I think you can get the idea.

Here all the alpacas are watching the loose dog (I've mentioned before how the alpacas will all stare at any form of danger, here is an example of that):



Snickers, and her daughter Rose, won't just stare. They have to go and investigate. When visitors come to our farm, Rose and Snickers will come to greet them. Rose loves to sniff people. When there is danger involved, Snickers is ready to stomp (I've heard of alpacas stomping smaller animals to death). Quinn wasn't going to stand still for a stomping lesson, so he took off running.

Here is Quinn running, alpacas (Snickers and Rose) and Zack chasing behind:



Here Quinn is trapped at the gate (he managed to squeeze past it).



In the end no one was hurt, and we are reminded again how important it is to make sure all gates are closed to keep the house dogs away from the farm animals.

New Cria

We worked out a trade for 3 females. On Friday, J drove to Ohio to pick them up (dropping off Navigator on the way, and picking up Tucker).

Introducing Lucy:



I love her big eyes! Lucy is bred, due on June 13, 2011. Lucy is a five year old beige female.

Vanilla Latte came to us with her 3 day old cria at side! Latte and cria are both fawn. The cria is tiny, at 13 pounds. We've never had one that tiny on our farm. Our smallest one born this year was 17 pounds (smallest ever we believe was Shelby, who was 14 pounds at birth). We dug out all our cria coats to keep her toasty warm.




Latte reminds me a lot of our own Tehya (same coloring, and Felix in the ancestry). Latte will be four years old at the end of October. The cria, yet to be named, was born on Wednesday.

Tucker! Tucker!

J left this morning to go and pick up our male, ARF Our Peruvian Tucker. Last winter we swapped Tucker with a different male, Peruvian Navigator. The other farm got Tucker for a few months, and we had Navigator. It's a neat way to get different genetics into your herd, without losing your male forever.

We always loved Tucker, but since he hadn't had any cria on the ground, you just never know what a male will produce. When Tucker's first cria, Challenger, was born this past summer, we knew we REALLY loved Tucker. Challenger appears to be a very nice alpaca (if you notice, we haven't listed him on our farm page on Alpaca Nation yet, he's our little keeper :) ).

We were going to wait to swap males when we go to Alpacafest in November, but with some other things going on, J decided to make the trip this weekend.